George R.R. Martin Hints That GAME OF THRONES Might Introduce Fire Wights

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We hate to interrupt your constant complaining that George R.R. Martin needs to stop doing frivolous things like eating and sleeping so he can focus on finishing the books, but when he says something like this you’ll want to listen: fire wights.

Fire. Wights.

Wights–the name for the dead soldiers in Game of Thrones‘ White Walker army–but instead of ice they are raised with fire. Yup, take a deep breath. We had to.

In an interview with Time (that we learned about at Uproxx), the author dropped this monumental tidbit while talking about Lady Stoneheart (from the novels) and Jon Snow, and how their resurrections changed them (bolded ours):

Right. And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice, now we’re getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.

Oh my god.

Beric said that every time his friend, the red priest Thoros of Myr, brings him back from the dead he’s “a bit less,” adding that “pieces of you get chipped away” in the process. Just like the ice wights, resurrection makes you less human. That would make Beric and Jon Snow (and the novels’ Stoneheart and maybe Victarion) potentially the opposite side of the same (inhuman) coin as the ice wights.

This fits with something from the novels, where, despite appearing to be mindless soldiers, (ice) wights seem to retain some memory of their lives. Almost like they are the end product of Beric’s slow transformation. This connection should frighten anyone who is counting on the once-dead Jon Snow to save the day. How much is he actually “alive,” and is it possible the Night King can turn him at any point?

However, what has us really excited is that this makes a fascinating fan theory much more plausible: the stonemen are the Lord of Light’s own “wights.”

It’s a theory based on the idea that the two gods of the coming Great War, the Lord of Light and the White Walker’s god the Great Other, each have their own similar army. There’s a lot behind the theory (including the legendary Shrouded Lord who some say was a statue brought to life from a kiss by a woman with ice cold lips), but all you need to know is that it argues stonemen are monsters containing vestiges of having been human. They are basically dead, but still walking among us as threats. That describes the wights we have seen in the Night King army.

There aren’t enough red priests in the world to pray over the dead to build a force equivalent in size, but the easily spreadable greyscale could.

And Jorah has it.

Jorah Mormont, a character that has been a part of the story from the very first episode, was last seen being commanded by Daenerys to find a cure and return to her. Him contracting the disease and being told to return was enough to tell us greyscale will play an important role going forward, but additionally the show spent time in season five ominously discussing it. It’s horrible effects were mentioned at Castle Black when Shireen was there. Why spend precious time on it if it was merely a device to kill Jorah? Why do that when a sword would have worked?

And here we are now with the possibility of fire wights.

The show has seemingly been setting up the Great War as one of ice against fire. The dead against the living. The Lord of Light against the Great Other. But meanwhile red priestesses have been burning people alive and raising the dead. How is that all that different from the Night King?

The Faceless Men of Braavos believe there is only one god with many faces. If they are right that means the White Walker god is the same god as the Lord of Light. “A song of ice and fire” doesn’t have to mean those two are in opposition. They have a lot in common, including both being just as deadly to the living.

A fire wight might not be the answer to the ice wights. They might be allies.

We’re going to take a few more deep breaths.

But what do you think this all means? Who can be trusted? Where can the living turn with wights all around them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.